By Arden Henley
GTEC Executive Director
In honour of Carolyn Kenny (June 12, 1946 – October 15, 2017)
I was the Principal of Canadian programs at City University in Canada when the preliminary report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was released in 2015. At that time Simon Fraser University Professor, Heesoon Bai introduced me to Indigenous academic, Carolyn Kenny. Following one of the urgent imperatives in the Commission report to educate the public about residential schools and the genocide they perpetrated, Carolyn and I decided to introduce the findings of the Commission to students at City University.
Born of a Choctaw mother in Mississippi and a first-generation Ukrainian father, Carolyn was adopted into the Haida Nation in the year 1999 by Dorothy Bell, matriarch of the Masset Haida people. Her given Haida name was Nang Jaada Sa-êts, which means Haida Woman with a Mind of the Highest Esteem. Her Haida clan is Eagle and her Haida family holds the Hummingbird crest.
Carolyn served a worldwide community through her scholarly pursuits, research, writing, teaching, mentoring, and presentations. She was a seasoned scholar and music therapy practitioner. She co-founded Voices, an open access journal with Brynjulf Stige in 2001 and co-founded Capilano College/University’s music therapy Bachelor’s degree program with Nancy McMaster in 1976.
Together with City University in Canada’s, Master’s Degree in Education Program Director, Jill Taggart, Carolyn and I introduced the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to students in the Masters of Education program. Testimonies from the Commission report were front and centre in these presentations and Carolyn taught a number of the classes. We believed then, as I believe to this day, there can be no reconciliation without truth. We were one of the first universities in Canada to incorporate the findings of this Commission in the graduate curriculum. As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had suggested we were amazed to discover how little our graduate students knew about residential schools in Canada.
In Carolyn’s gently spoken words*:
I know what I know only
Because of the kindness of others and the gifts
bestowed upon me By the Creator
For this I give thanks and of
course, always, to the land. This is
why I dance and sing.
All my relations!
Carolyn died in a palliative care unit in Santa Barbara to which she had introduced music therapy many years before. She sent me poems about seeing hummingbirds during this final period of her life.
* From a website honouring Dr. Kenny who passed away in October, 2017 (downloaded May 13, 2022)
GTEC’s Vision is to be at the forefront of solutions to the social and environmental challenges of our time. We value diversity, inclusion and social justice and regard working in partnership with the Indigenous community as an integral part of responding to climate change.